Help building a new sys for a friend (firepod)

My buddy asked me to build him a sys. So I figured I would start from the dig/midi interface and build computer from there.

I bought him a firepod. Now it's the Processor/MB/HD...

Can anyone recomend a MB and HD that has known compatibility with the firepod? I will buy a firewire PCI interface card...

Also can anyone reccomend a soundcard? I use an edirol Roland UA100 and that is my soundcard too... My misconception when buying the firepod is that I thought the firepod would be my audio record/playback device...

I was able to choose the Firepod (Line Out 1+2) as my default audio device (Control Panel/Sounds).

I'm running Samplitude 7 Pro on an AMD XP 1700+/Shuttle mobo, and it all seems to work nicely with the Firepod. Yes, it's quite outdated. I should upgrade. Of course, considering that the Firepod comes with Cubase, that's probably a great way to go.

There have been quite a few recommendations for the nForce3 chipset (motherboard) and a socket 939 Athlon 64 processor. I will admit that I haven't paid much attention to Intel recommendations. There are quite a few specific recommendations in many of the threads here. Try a search or just browse around.

Just be sure to get enough RAM. Plugins (effects) can use quite a bit. 512MB should be the minimum.